26 February 2012

I met with a family that lives on Har HaZeisim. They are one of two that are making sure there is a Jewish Presence on our land, the holy place where many holy neshomas are resting. This cemetery covers thousands of years of Jewish history. It is under attack daily by Arabs, just like Kever Rachel, Kever Yosef, and the Kotel. People visiting family buried there, Knesset members and American dignitaries are targets for rock throwing vandals. Something has to be done about this, and Malcolm Hoenlein, from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and other American activists are trying to get Israelis focused on this issue and motivated into action.

"At one time, everyone drank raw milk. But with the invention of pasteurization and its alleged safety benefits, consumption of raw milk in this country almost completely disappeared. In fact, in some states it is illegal to sell raw milk. But a growing segment of the population is clamoring for increased access to raw milk, citing its nutritional benefits and recently discovered inbuilt safety mechanisms. Opponents are skeptical of such nutritional claims and believe the safety risks of unpasteurized milk are simply too high."

“Food policy implicates a broad range of pressing humanitarian, public health, and environmental challenges. These challenges include, among many others: ending hunger, promoting rural economic development, protecting the safety of the food supply, reversing the obesity and diabetes epidemics, and averting catastrophic climate change. Addressing any and all of these challenges requires the development of healthy, sustainable, and equitable food systems.” –Yale Law School Conference, Developing Food Policy: U.S. & International Perspectives

The fight to legalize raw milk has been fought on many fronts. This month, a debate will take place at Harvard between some of the most prominent voices from both sides of this issue. Sally Fallon Morrell wrote the “politically incorrect” cookbook, "Nourishing Traditions," and founded the nonprofit organization, The Weston A Price Foundation. Both her cookbook, and the foundation have sought to bring the benefits of raw milk to light, and to help make it possible to buy legally. Alongside her will be Dave Grumpert, author of "The Raw Milk Revolution."

"The opposition includes Fred Pritzker, a food safety lawyer. In recent years he has been actively opposed to regulations allowing the legalization of raw milk. He has represented cases of those sickened by the consumption of raw milk.

"One side would argue that raw milk is inherently safe, if proper procedure is followed. In fact, they would argue that raw milk is safer to consume than conventional milk. The other side argues that raw milk is inherently unsafe to consume and should be banned. It will be a very interesting debate, to say the least, as both sides have strong opinions on the topic.

24 February 2012

The Media is now owned by the Occupy Conglomerate and actively Persecuting anyone that is not politically correct in their eyes. This is what could happen to all the Social Networking innocents. They and the community of bloggers (we) could find themselves caught up in the next phase of Internet Cyber Terrorism and Attempted World Domination by those behind the Occupiers.

One thing you can do: here and here, or as the Rabbis have warned, abandon the Internet.

Glenn Beck is correct when he says that "We are actually in WW III and it's a very different type of war."

Exclusive at The Algemeiner: CNN’s decision to fire four Jewish Israeli journalists from the cable network’s Jerusalem bureau earlier this month was due in part to their religion and nationality, and to their perceived inability to operate freely throughout the Middle East, the Algemeiner has learned.

After explaining to The New York Daily News that the racially offensive headline about Jeremy Lin published on ESPN’s mobile site was an “honest mistake,” now former ESPN employee Anthony Federico has released a more detailed statement explaining that the offense was ”a lapse in judgment and not a racist pun.”

Here‘s Federico’s full statement:

“I wrote the headline in reference to the tone of the column and not to Jeremy Lin’s race. It was a lapse in judgment and not a racist pun. It was an awful editorial omission and it cost me my job.

I owe an apology to Jeremy Lin and all people offended. I am truly sorry.

Actions speak louder than words. My words may have hurt people in that moment but my actions have always helped people. If those who vilify me would take a deeper look at my life they would see that I am the exact opposite of how some are portraying me.

They would see that on the day of the incident I got a call from a friend – who happens to be homeless – and rushed to his aid. He was collapsed on the side of the road due to exposure and hunger. They would see how I picked him up and got him a hotel room and fed him. They would see I used my vacation time last year to volunteer in the orphanages of Haiti. They would see how I ‘adopted’ an elderly Alzheimer’s patient and visited him every week for a year. They would see that every winter I organize a coat drive for those less fortunate in New Haven. They would see how I raised $10,000 for a friend in need when his kids were born four months premature. They would see how I have worked in soup kitchens and convalescent homes since I was a kid. They would see my actions speak louder than my words. They would see that these acts were not done for my glory, but for God’s. They would see that each day I live and will continue to live a life of joy and service.

It never has been or will be my intention to hurt anyone. I wrote thousands and thousands and thousands of headlines in my five years at ESPN. There never was a problem with any of them and I was consistently praised as an employee – both personally and professionally. Two weeks prior to the incident I had my first column published on espnW.com. My career was taking off. Why would I throw that all away with a racist pun? This was an honest mistake.

It is also crucial that people know that the writer of the column had nothing to do with the headline. I wrote it and now I take responsibility for it.

I am actually a Knicks fan and an ardent supporter of Jeremy Lin. Not surprisingly, he has handled the entire situation with grace and class.Now I have to find a new job and move on with my life. My solace in this is that ‘all things work together for good for those who love the Lord.’ I praise God equally in the good times and the bad times.

05 February 2012

Eligible residents of cities and local authorities can receive up to NIS 75,000 in a development grant at low, government-subsidized interest rates for the purchase of a home, while residents of kibbutzim, moshavim, small towns and Arab villages can receive up to NIS 150,000 in subsidized loans.

Originally, some 70 towns in Judea and Samaria – including Kiryat Arba, Efrat, Ariel, Beit El, Beitar Ilit, and many others - had been included in the list, but after criticism by leftist groups, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanayahu conducted a telephone poll of ministers, seeking their permission to amend the government decision. As a result, residents will only be able to get the benefits if “political officials” sign off on the requests. The most likely candidate for that job is Defense Minister Ehud Barak, whom Judea and Samaria residents have long accused of doing everything possible to slow Jewish population growth in Judea and Samaria, with his consistent refusal to allow for construction of new homes, building permits, etc.

Arutz Sheva sought to find out which ministers decided in the telephone poll that residents of Judea and Samaria did not deserve the benefits.

According to the information discovered, the following ministers told Netanyahu in the phone poll that the benefits should apply to Judea and Samaria residents: Gideon Sa'ar, Limor Livnat, Gilad Erdan, Daniel Hershkowitz, Silvan Shalom, Avigdor Lieberman, Stas Mesheznekov, Yitzchak Aharonovich, Sofa Landver, and Uzi Landau. The first four are Likud members and the latter five are from Yisrael Beiteinu, while Hershkowitz is from the Bayit Yehudi party.

Those who voted to deny Judea and Samaria residents the housing benefits included*****all members of Shas in the government – Eli Yishai, Ariel Atias, Ya'akov Margi, and Meshlam Nahari – as well as *****Ehud Barak and other current and former Labor ministers.*****

Likud minister Yossi Peled said he had not been asked his opinion. Yisrael Katz, Yuval Steinitz, Benny Begin, Ya'akov Ne'eman, and Moshe Kachlon did not respond to Arutz Sheva's request for information on how they voted. Minister Yuli Edelstein abstained.

Sa'ar, who voted against removing the benefits, called on Netanyahu to conduct an open vote on such an important issue.

Speaking Saturday night, Hershkowitz said that “with all due respect to the U.S., Israel is not the 51st star on the American flag. It is the right of an independent country to set up its own preference zones without outside interference.”

Whenever I make a presentation on the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, my first task is to undermine the common perception of the community as an undifferentiated sea of black automatons who wake up in the morning and receive their marching orders from central command, like something out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The people with whom I interact frequently are as different from one another as any other group of human beings. As the the Sages of the Talmud say, “Just as each individual’s face is different so are their ways of thinking.”

Like most people, I resent it when I feel I’m being judged by externals. During college, I sported an impressive Afro that would have done Jimi Hendrix proud. I remember being stopped in New York City by someone who noticed my college T-shirt and felt compelled to tell me, “I went to the University of Chicago, and you are a disgrace.” Yet everything that person assumed about me based on my hairstyle – drug use, study habits – was almost surely wrong.

A few months ago, I found myself seated on a flight next to someone reading John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty. I attempted to start a conversation by asking him whether he was a professor. A monosyllabic “no” was the response. I commented that one doesn’t find too many people reading Mill on airplanes, but that too failed to elicit any response or ignite a conversation. I felt – though I could be wrong – that he assumed that no one whom he had seen wearing a black hat could have anything of interest to say about On Liberty.

In any event, I recently discovered that I have no right to criticize non-haredim for any stereotypes that may color their judgment of me before I open my mouth.

My eureka moment came on a visit to the Haredi Center for Technological Studies (HCTS), where I was interviewing men studying architecture, computer networking and construction engineering.

The first person I interviewed was a Gerrer Hassid in the architecture program.

He told me he had slept for only two hours over the preceding two days while working on his monthly project. I have only spoken with a few Gerrer Hassidim in my life, and carried a number of negative stereotypes regarding their community.

These stereotypes, common in the circles I travel in, concern their restrictions on contact between husbands and wives beyond that codified in Halacha, their aggressive efforts to advance the interests of their community and the need to stay out of their way when they form a phalanx in front of the Rebbe.

Those stereotypes, it soon became clear, provided me with no useful information about the father of four in front of me.

Indeed, until I put those stereotypes aside I was not able to properly listen to him and absorb what he was telling me, as he described his reasons for choosing this course and the various ups and downs he had experienced along the way. I was surprised, for instance, that his wife worked as a computer programmer in a government office. I had thought that few Gerrer women worked outside the haredi community at all.

After the interview, we joined the class in which the students were presenting their projects. The two lecturers were tearing apart, tag-team style, the model of a shopping center produced by another Gerrer Hassid. As I watched the dissection, I leaned over to my new friend, and asked him whether the one whose project was being critiqued would be able to take the criticism. He replied, “It’s not enough to obtain a degree. We want to work, and for that you have to be good. The only way to become good is to receive criticism.”

When our interview began, I saw only a Gerrer Hassid, as if that were some kind of generic brand. By the end, I saw a person with a full gamut of thoughts, feelings, and hopes – i.e., as much an individual as anyone else.

But if it took me – a haredi Jew – time to adjust to the idea that not all members of another haredi group are alike, how can I criticize any non-haredi person who makes any number of assumptions about me? It is human nature to view strangers wearing distinctive dress of one type or another as if they were all alike. The best that we can hope for is that those stereotypes remain at the level of what lawyers call “rebuttable presumptions.” And that those whom we meet are curious enough and open enough to want to know us as individuals.

One of the reasons that I’m so enthusiastic about the Kesher Yehudi program that has brought together more than 10,000 secular and religious women as study partners is because of the stereotypes broken down in both directions as the relationships develop.

STEREOTYPES HAVE THEIR USES.

If you are the 70-year-old owner of a jewelry store in downtown Washington and three dudes, wearing lots of bling, seek to be buzzed in, the decision not to do so may have more to do with potentially life-saving prudence than with prejudice. But in general stereotypes that blind us to the infinite variety of individuals sharing the planet with us impoverish our lives.

Two weeks later, I’m back at the HCTS, this time to interview lecturers, most of whom are not religious. Once again, each interview turns out to be filled with surprises.All it takes is some show of interest.

For instance, the civil engineering lecturer, a graduate of the Technion, tells me that he is “hiloni l’halutin“ (absolutely secular). Yet in the very next sentence he mentions that he is Shabbat observant, a position he came to as a “man of science” from his awareness of the perfection of the creation and multiplicity of forces that had to be aligned just so for human life to exist.

He even shares with me that after his divorce he wondered how he would ever find a wife: What secular woman would tolerate his Shabbat observance? What religious woman would tolerate his lack of observance in other areas? Yet three months later, he found such a woman, which he attributes to the merit of his Shabbat observance, and now their two children go to local religious schools.

On the way back from the interviews, someone from the morning class I attend gets on the bus. I see from the volume of Talmud that he is carrying that he is learning daf hayomi (the one-folio-a-day study of Talmud that takes over seven years to complete.) I ask him what number cycle this is for him, and he replies it’s his fourth. He adds that he never misses a day, even when traveling back and forth to America where he works half of each month as a neonatologist. Though we have attended the same class for some years, I would never have guessed either his level of commitment to learning or his discipline.

That evening as I’m going down the stairs from the ma’ariv (evening) prayers, a woman who lives upstairs is walking up the stairs to a Talmud class in the adjacent beit midrash. I jokingly remark that I did not know the class was now coed.

She tells me she is taking her phone to put by the teacher so that her husband, a tour guide, who is away with a tour group, can listen to the class. And then she adds with pride that he never misses listening to the class when he is away, no matter how rigorous the hiking that day.

Again, I’m astounded by the level of commitment of someone whom I have lived almost next door to for well over a decade.

Stories of respected people who turn out to have feet of clay are more likely to gain media attention. And they can leave one wondering whom one can really trust. But I’m convinced that with respect to most people, we would discover much more that is admirable if we did not fall prey to quick judgments and made more of an effort to really know them.

The Halacha permits a certain amount of exaggeration of the deceased’s good points in a eulogy. One of the leading commentators explains that limited exaggeration is permissible because it almost certainly reflects the truth, as the positive qualities of most people are at least partially hidden from others. Certainly, they are hidden from all those who do not meet their fellow human beings with curiosity, open ears and expecting to be surprised.

02 February 2012

Israel’s diplomatic and military correspondents got quite the surprise watching the live feed of the Senate Intelligence Committee when Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) revealed the head of the Mossad had made a secret visit to Washington earlier this week to hold talks with senior U.S. officials.

The item led the “Mabat” main newscast on Israel’s government-run network IBA on Tuesday evening and was the headline on Ha’aretz newspaper’s website.

The travels of Mossad Director Tamir Pardo are usually kept secret and in fact, the name of the head of the Mossad and Shin Bet [Israel’s version of the FBI] were up until a few years ago kept secret from the public.

“Yeah, that probably should not have been said. Geez,” Glenn said on radio.

Haaretz:

"The clandestine Washington visit was exposed during a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which was participated by CIA Director David Petraeus, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate panel...."

Coincidence?

"News of the Mossad chief's reported Washington visit came as, also on Tuesday, President Shimon Peres said that Iran's "evil" leadership mustn't be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons capability."

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Ein Od Milvado

LIVING in Eretz Israel is the equivalent of all the Mitzvot of the Torah (Sifri, Parashat Re'eh, TOSEFTA, AVODA ZARA 5:2)

Fortunate is he who merits in his life to FIX HIS RESIDENCE in Eretz HaKodesh (Zohar Hakadosh Iii 72b) and remove from your heart this false belief that a man has more blessings outside the land (Alshich Hakadosh, Ki Tavo 28:6)